Max Brooks, author of World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide, spoke about the upcoming Avatar Press graphic novel adaptation and all things zombie-related at Wizard World today. Hit the jump for the panel recap.

As a huge fan of World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide, I was really excited to hear what Max had to say about some upcoming zombie-related products. I missed out on the chance to see him at Wizard World last year, but this year I was right in the front row.

Max started by telling us everything he knows about the World War Z movie: “Nothing!” He then told the audience to call Mark Forrester if we want to see the movie get made. Now it’s time to talk books!

-Around 1997/98, Y2K was going to happen. (He tells this to a little girl, says “before she was born grown-ups were freaking out”). Y2K inspired the Zombie Survival Guide.
-In Europe, people accept their fate no matter what. “Poopiness happens”. “One day you’ll grow up and realize that life is one giant Smiths song.” Survivalism is popular in American culture, and Y2K survival guides were getting really popular. “Well, what about zombies?”
-Max talks about the book being in the humor section, and that the joke is on him. As the son of Mel Brooks, he sounded funny… and “Jew-y”, and there’s no Jew-y section in the bookstore.
-When it came time to write another book, he still had some more zombies in him.
-Doing the research for WWZ was very hard and time consuming. Every story in WWZ is based on something that has really happened.
-When writing a comic, you need to describe everything or the artist will put what he wants in there. Everything needs to be extremely detailed.
-Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks, the graphic novel, is due out the first week of October.

Then it was time for some questions from the audience.

-Max has another graphic novel in the works (true historical story, and not about zombies, 2011 or 2012), which he can’t talk about. Also going to be working on G.I. Joe for IDW.
-“Are you really scared of zombies?” Max: “Yeah!”
-Growing up in “The AIDS Generation” and feeling like he was living through a plague helped inspire his fear of zombies.
-Why wouldn’t his father be producing his stuff? “My dad is 82 years old.” Why doesn’t he make a few phone calls to his old friends? “His old friends are dead. He’s 82 years old!” And even if he could, “I don’t want my DADDY to make my book!”
-The study of human history is the study of humans screwing up. Most people are dumb and scared.
-He doesn’t mind the recent zombie bandwagon, but he’s just worried about it grinding to a halt, which is a shame for the next person out there with a great zombie story to tell. Uses Pride and Prejudice and Zombies as an example of market saturation.
-Used actual conversations as a basis for WWZ’s oral history, some taken verbatim and based on real things.
-Someone asks how he feels about zombie video games. Dead Rising: “What a bunch of asshats!” Likes Left 4 Dead though. “Any zombie video game is okay with me except Dead Rising, they can go to hell.” He hates it because it’s a blatant ripoff of Dawn of the Dead.
-Underwater zombies: Why don’t they dissolve in saltwater? He doesn’t know. Here’s what he does know: underwater, our lungs would be crushed, but not the rest of us, we are water. That’s science.
-Is there a writers’ guild of zombie writers that gets together? “Yeah, we do. Wild parties!”
-Favorite zombie fiction? Walking Dead, Dawn of the Dead.
-Max: “I don’t make it a point to address my critics, mostly because I don’t care.”

Remember, Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks will be out in October, and you can find Wizard World Philly 09 coverage on Gamervision and The Quarter Bin all weekend long.